Reversal of fortune for UML basketball

LOWELL -- The UMass Lowell men's basketball team may have been struggling as the regular season wound down, losing its last four games, but it certainly turned things around come tournament time.

UMass Lowell slapped Le Moyne, 82-65, in the first round of the Northeast-10 Conference playoffs Friday night at the Costello Gym.

That sets up a matchup against the NE-10 top seed, St. Anselm, Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Manchester, N.H.

The River Hawks got off to a somewhat slow start Friday night before turning the switch on in the second half. UML took a seven-point lead into halftime, as Chad Holley banked in a buzzer-beating three. That shot really gave the River Hawks momentum leading into the second half, and served as a buzz kill for the Dolphins, who had worked hard to keep it close.

Holley led the way with 25 points, while the River Hawks got a good balance of scoring from Antonio Bivins, Akeem Williams, and Kennedy Chukwuocha, all of whom scored 13 points.

Connor Mahoney led the Dolphins with 19 points.

The second half was all UMass Lowell, outscoring the Dolphins 45-35 in the half due to late defensive breakdowns and desperate play from the Dolphins.

The River Hawks showed poise when the Dolphins started to put pressure on trying to get back in it.

The Dolphins played in a 2-3 zone for most of the game and for the most part it did slow down the River Hawks, who like to get out and run.

Coach Greg Herenda spoke about handling the zone: "We have played them before so we were prepared for the zone, they are well-coached but we moved it and made shots.

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That is a team that if you don't guard and adjust, they can score a lot of points on you."

Akeem Williams came into the game as the River Hawks' leading scorer but was more of a distributor in this one and got into a little foul trouble early.

His coach spoke highly about his basketball knowledge: "I have to give credit to Akeem. He wanted to move to the one and Holley to the two, maybe some day Akeem can coach."

The River Hawks won the battle on the glass and that got them some good second chance looks and got them to the line.

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